Lyme Disease and YouTube™: A Cross-Sectional Study of Video Contents

Authors

• Corey H. Basch, William Paterson UniversityFollow
• Lindsay A. Mullican, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Kwanza D. Boone, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Jingjing Yin, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Alyssa Berdnik, Columbia UniversityFollow
• Marina E. Eremeeva, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
• Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-31-2017

Publication Title

Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives

DOI

10.24171/j.phrp.2017.8.4.10

Abstract

Objectives: Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease. People seek health information on Lyme disease from YouTubeTM videos. In this study, we investigated if the contents of Lyme disease-related YouTubeTM videos varied by their sources.

Methods: Most viewed English YouTubeTM videos (n = 100) were identified and manually coded for contents and sources.

Results: Within the sample, 40 videos were consumer-generated, 31 were internet-based news, 16 were professional, and 13 were TV news. Compared with consumer-generated videos, TV news videos were more likely to mention celebrities (odds ratio [OR], 10.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.13–52.58), prevention of Lyme disease through wearing protective clothing (OR, 5.63; 95% CI, 1.23–25.76), and spraying insecticides (OR, 7.71; 95% CI, 1.52–39.05).

Conclusion: A majority of the most popular Lyme disease-related YouTubeTM videos were not created by public health professionals. Responsible reporting and creative video-making facilitate Lyme disease education. Partnership with YouTubeTM celebrities to co-develop educational videos may be a future direction.

Comments

Copyright © 2017, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Recommended Citation

Basch, Corey H., Lindsay A. Mullican, Kwanza D. Boone, Jingjing Yin, Alyssa Berdnik, Marina E. Eremeeva, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung. 2017. "Lyme Disease and YouTube™: A Cross-Sectional Study of Video Contents." Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives, 8 (4): 289-292. doi: 10.24171/j.phrp.2017.8.4.10 source: https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2017.8.4.10
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/environ-health-facpubs/72

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